asylum
/əˈsaɪləm/
"asylum" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“asylum” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #7,197. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #7,197
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A place of safety or refuge.
Corpus desk
Index EN-asylum · asylum · English
asylum · rank #7,197 · 9 variants · 1 confusable
- FREQ-COMMON #7,197
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
- VAR-MID 9 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH Alfred
Nearest frequency peer: Alfred (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “asylum”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Adelaide
Adelaide
92,807 corpus weight
- affiliate
affiliate
92,806 corpus weight
- Alfred
Alfred
92,805 corpus weight
- asylum
asylum
92,804 corpus weight
- barn
barn
92,803 corpus weight
- bent
bent
92,802 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “asylum” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | asylum |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /əˈsaɪləm/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #7,197 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “asylum” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around asylum (IPA /əˈsaɪləm/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #7,197 among 3,931 “A” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for asylum, with forms such as "aslyum", "assylum", and "asyllum". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "alum", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin asylum, from Ancient Greek ἄσυλον (ásulon). The correct English form is asylum, spelled A-S-Y-L-U-M.
Definition
- 1A place of safety or refuge.
- 2The protection, physical and legal, afforded by such a place (as, for example, for political refugees).
- 3A place of protection or restraint for one or more classes of the disadvantaged, especially the mentally ill.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how asylum appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
All the busy concerns of daily existence were utterly abhorrent to me. I loathed the sound of others' voices—I hated to be mixed up with their petty routine of ordinary cares; here was an asylum offered to me—here I might lay down all the offices of humanity, and dwell beside that grave whose rest was now my only desire.
So lawyers started filing separate asylum requests for the children, arguing that reintegrating in countries they barely knew, after spending their childhood or adolescence in Belgium, would not only be impossible but would expose them to serious risks.
Etymology
From Latin asylum, from Ancient Greek ἄσυλον (ásulon).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- aslyum
- assylum
- asyllum
- asylmu
- asylumm
- asyulm
- asyylum
- ayslum
- saylum
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of asylum - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "asylum", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "asylum". Here's where to go from here.
- This headword has one recorded confusable pair with "alum". View pair
- 9 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #7,197 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "A" letter cohort. A–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.